Exploring the relationship between ‘young people’s cultural formations and commercial industries’ as well as the various representations of youth circulating in politics and the media, the author argues that the construction of ideologically-charged representations of youth functions as a medium for interpreting fundamental shifts in society. It is argued in this book that media is not only extensively used by young people, but it is also largely responsible for shaping society’s conception and definition of youth.

The aspect of this book most relevant to videogame fandom, however, is the study of the ways in which media geared towards young audiences are able to offer ‘fertile spaces for the configuration of multiple and dynamic identities, looking at the impact of new media and communication technologies on young people’s social and cultural lives.’’. Although videogames are seldom directly referred to, some of the wider points the author makes regarding subcultures and different audience reception/readings of media texts could also be applied to videogames.

Methodology

The author sets the premise to the discussion by highlighting the tension between political economy and cultural studies approaches to audience study. The conflict between the notion of a manipulated audience favoured by the former and the view of an audience constructing their own cultures with materials provided from commercial resources maps the two main currents in this ongoing debate. Osgerby points out, however, that ‘more recent studies of youth consumption have gone some way towards integrating the two’, also pointing to McRobbie’s focus on an integrated approach where attention is focused on ‘the ‘three Es’ – ‘the empirical, the ethnographic and the experiential’ (McRobbie, 1997:186, p.221). These approaches are more likely to give recognition to young people’s active agency in cultural creation while acknowledging that this creativity is enclosed within economical and political power structures. Attention is also given to the concept of ‘circuits of culture’ and the way meanings of media texts are constructed through processes of production, identity formation, representation, consumption and regulation. The author argues for a constructive combination of issues of political economy, textuality and audience reception.

Generation X – The Media-Savvy Audience

The author argues that fans and fan groups ‘have been popularly regarded as rather sad creatures, invariably pathologised as socially dysfunctional love outsiders or maligned as irrational obsessives.’

 There are certainly conflicting views regarding modern audiences, however, with authors such as Ritchie (1995:114) presenting a rather optimistic picture:

‘Generation X learned to handle television like a team of lawyers handle a hostile witness – we did not raise a stupid generation here. The ground rules were established early. Generation X would take from the media what they needed and what they found entertaining, but they would never accept information from the media at face value. They would learn to be critical. They would learn to recognise hype, ‘weasel words’ and exaggeration. And, like all good lawyers, they would always seek to control the communication’

While others, such as Thorup (1998:53), put forward a more cautious assessment of young audience’s prowess in decoding media:

(the) ‘study of the reception of advertising for Diesel jeans in Denmark, for example, found that many of the campaigns’ subtle ironies were lost on young audiences whose reading strategies were ‘‘not nearly as modern and media conscious as advertisers assumed’

This debate is directly relevant to the way media is perceived and regulated, as the ‘effects’ and influence of media over young people is a constant source of moral panics: ‘notions of causal relationship between ‘violent’ media content and aggressive behaviour by young people… remain entrenched.’ ‘Social scientific research has often been cited as evidence of the detrimental impact of popular entertainment on young audiences.’

 This type of research, however, ‘gives little attention to the social meanings that surround both media texts and social behaviour… As David Buckingham explains, ‘effects’ research invariably gives little regard to the social process thorough which meanings are produced and circulated.’ The author argues this scapegoating of the media is merely a way of displacing concern and blame for larger and more difficult political and social. Springhall also points the marginalizing of media (such as videogames) as ‘an attempt to define and police a hierarchy of taste in which middle-class cultural preferences are validated and zealously promulgated’  – while those of less powerful groups are denigrated and suppressed (Springhall, 1998:139). These concerns, according to him embody the dominant classes’ fear of ‘autonomous, working-class youth subcultures over which they have little control (Springhall, 1998: 35).’

Durking supports that view by concluding that research indicates that ‘Computer games have not led to the development of a generation of isolated, antisocial, compulsive computer users with strong propensities for aggression (Durking: 1995:71)’. As yet another form of subcultural resistance, however, many fan groups actually welcome condemnation, which can be seen to crystallize their romantic rebellious and outcast status. (Thornton, 1994, talking about the Rave Scene).  Audiences, the author concludes, actively negotiate with cultural forms and media texts, appropriating and subverting their meanings as suits their purposes.

Sociality and the Creation of Subcultures in Fandom

Bennett (1999a, 2000) suggested the concept of ‘neo-tribes’ as a  better term to capture the dynamic, pluralistic relationship between young people and the contemporary media…These ‘neo-tribal’ groups were not formed according to ‘traditional’ structural determinants (for example, class, gender or religion), but through diverse, dynamic and often ephemeral consumption patterns.’ This does seem to be a model better applicable to videogame fandom, as the variety of cultural and social backgrounds are extremely varied in any given fan group and it is only their conversion of interest in a commercial product that brings them together.

This challenges generalisations about fans and the idea of fandom as an all-encompassing group. The author does point to the ‘existence of pronounced hierarchies and processes of exclusory ‘gatekeeping’ within Internet fan networks.’ which indicates exclusion of some fans in favour of others.

The complexity and organisation of fan cultures is noted by the author, who assets that complex hierarchies are formed ‘through processes of interconnection, transformation and translation.’ just as modern youth cultures in general are forged through various processes of ‘interconnection, fusion and amalgamation.’ These processes, he continues, represent a rejection of the Enlightenment ideals of the unified and coherent individual in favour of a post-structuralist fragmented identity whose many segments are continuously created and reshaped through cultural meanings and practices. He concludes by suggesting that this ‘integrated and interactive multimedia universe’ in which we now live stands as an example of  ‘Jean Baudrillard’s (1985) notion of a dawning age of postmodern ‘hyperreality’ with borders between formerly separate areas of cultural life increasingly effaced in the media-saturated world where distinctions between the real and the imaginary became increasingly hazy.’

This concept of living life partly through technology seems relevant to videogames, as many fans spend a considerable part of their lives immersed in alternative realities (which is not to imply that they are unaware of their immersion) and interacting over the Internet (via forums, production and consumption of walkthroughs, speedruns, etc.) with other individuals who possess similar identity segments, bringing together people who might have very little in common apart from their fandom of videogames. These fans manipulate and modify the meaning of the products they consume as part of the process of constructing their identity as a fan, seeking to take control of the text and actively shape and reconfigure it around their cultural agenda.

Videogame Marketing and a Reconfiguration of Fandom

‘According to Games Investor (a British consultancy firm specialising in the games industry), the mid-1990s saw a clear shift in the games market. After 1995, games investor argued, the average age of players of computer and video games rose significantly. In the UK, buyers of games for personal computer were the oldest, with magazine surveys suggesting the average age of players was between 27 and 31 years old (similar surveys in the US suggested American computer gamers were slightly older, at between 32 and 36 years old). The market for video console games was younger, but in Britain the average age of the PlayStation gamer still stood at around 25 to 30 years old, while the average Nintendo buyer was between 18 and 25 (Games Investor, 2003). The trend towards older consumers was the outcome of several factors. partly, it was due to many first generation (1980s) teenage gamers remaining active players as they grew to adulthood. Increased cost also began to put games platforms and software out of the reach of many younger consumers. But also important was a conscious shift in marketing focus, with games companies increasingly targeting an older ‘youth’ market. A landmark of the shift was the launch of Sony’s 32-bit PlayStation in 1995. with advertising pitched towards club culture and hip ‘twenty-somethings’, the PlayStation developed a userbase much older than that of previous games consoles and pointed the way towards the future development of the video and computer games industry.’